Forensic experts urge statute change to permit familial DNA searches in unsolved cases

Dr. Anna Marie Myers, a forensic practitioner and member of the Massachusetts Forensic Science Oversight Board, told the committee the Commonwealth should permit familial DNA searching and partial‑match analysis to help solve unsolved violent crimes. She said the existing statute governing DNA (G.L. c.22E, referenced in testimony) does not authorize these investigative techniques and that amending the statute would allow state and accredited labs to run partial matches through CODIS and, when appropriate, pursue investigative genetic genealogy strategies.

Myers said other states have used familial searching and cited a recent Essex County identification in a 1992 cold case that used related techniques. She urged that legislative language include guardrails: limit searches to samples from crime scenes or unknown persons processed by accredited public labs and restrict who may run searches. "If this was used in many of the unsolved crimes that have gone unsolved for many, many years, we would increase our solvability rate," Myers said.

Committee members asked about privacy and use of consumer genetic databases. Myers said the draft legislation was written to prevent law‑enforcement access to commercial consumer databases unless explicit consent mechanisms exist; she said the proposed change would instead enable state labs to use CODIS and accredited processes. The committee did not take action on the statute during the hearing; Myers asked that the committee move the bill forward so the lab can use modern investigative tools under statutory authority.